Ice Twisters (2009)

A Chilly Twist on Twister

Former scientist turned science fiction writer Charlie Price (Mark Moses) finds himself drawn back to his old life when he encounters a freak tornado. Spotting Government officials including his old friend Joanne (Camille Sullivan) examining the after effects Charlie discovers that a Government project to create not just rain but rain clouds has caused these adverse side effects and there are more tornadoes springing up. But not just ordinary tornadoes as these tornadoes cause rapid freezing as well. With the number of tornadoes growing rapidly and appearing to be heading for Portland it is a race against time to try and find a way of stopping them before it's too late.

First things first, congratulations to Mark Moses because I have no idea how he was able to deliver some of the corniest technical mumbo jumbo I have heard with out cracking up, trust me when he explains about wedging a hole in the ozone it's impossible not to laugh. Anyway as to "Ice Twisters", well in many ways what we have is a twist on "Twister", where in that movie they were trying to monitor tornadoes, here we have them trying to create rain clouds and accidentally creating ice twisters instead. It's far fetched, it's corny, it's at times painfully bad and it has some dodgy special effects and even dodgier dialogue but it hits the point that the sci-fi nonsense ends up ironically entertaining. Basically "Ice Twisters" is what you expect from a made for TV disaster movie which tries to mix the natural disaster storyline with sci-fi all done on a smaller budget.

So in fairness "Ice Twisters" is a sci-fi movie which works on being fiction rather than science. As such it comes up with this storyline about a Government project to create self perpetuating rain clouds to help drought stricken countries. That in itself isn't bad and nor is the fact we have sci-fi author and former science geek Charlie drawn into the mess which happens when the project goes haywire and creates ice twisters which cause the temperature to plummet to dangerous levels. Remember I did say this is more fiction than science and so far fetched is expected although even for those with the wildest imagination will find this all a little too much especially as we then have a touch of Government conspiracy thrown in for good measure.

But whilst "Ice Twisters" delivers this sci-fi set up what it ends up becoming is a storm chaser movie as we have Charlie, Joanne and various others trying to work out how these rogue ice twisters are forming and how they are going to stop them, more on the stopping them later. But as such what we get a lot of is tornado action, twisters hitting the ground, things flying through the air and several closes misses as Charlie and Joanne get close to being sucked up. Much of which feels like it is mirroring "Twister" with just the added twist that along with the tornadoes we get freezing temperatures, the sort of which border on those seen in "The Day After Tomorrow". It does mean that "Ice Twisters" borders on the corny and expectedly contrived as we watch all the tornado action but in fairness for everything which is both bad and good it is also entertaining even if you are enjoying it for the wrong reasons.

Of course "Ice Twisters" is a disaster movie so we have the issue of special effects and remembering this is a made for TV disaster movie what is on show is not as good as those in the likes of "2012" and "The Day After Tomorrow". But at the same time the effects are by no means the shoddiest I have ever seen and in fairness they work, the tornadoes may look false but they do look impressive and in many ways that is what really matters.

As for the acting well Mark Moses as Charlie is probably the best known face in "Ice Twisters" or at least I recognized him from "Desperate Housewives" whilst the rest meant little to me. And to be honest Mark Moses is the best thing about the movie because whether intentional or not at least he creates an amusing character; semi sarcastic, full of bull and as I've already said Moses delivers some of the most outrageous mumbo jumbo with such sincerity he deserves a round of applause.

What this all boils down to is that "Ice Twisters" is entertaining but for being just as bad as it is good. Technically it is terrible, far fetched, corny and full of desperate techie mumbo jumbo but once you embrace the humour of it being corny it makes you laugh, it probably wasn't the intention to be funny but at least it stops it from being simply terrible.